Ritual Studies Research Articles

The Ritual Spectrum: Definitions, Frameworks, and Implications

Ritual is one of the defining characteristics of our species, which both precedes and extends beyond religion, into domains like politics, sports, family, the workplace, and all manner of social organizations. In a rapidly changing world where organized religion appears to be losing its monopoly on ceremony, it is more important than ever to understand ritual’s unwavering persistence, investigate its functions, and explore its applications. The contributors to this book panel offer insightful critiques and insights about how to do this. In engaging with their ideas on the nature, definitions, and effects of ritual, both bright and dark, I join then in exploring applications for an interdisciplinary study of ritual.

A Gladdening Vision of a Dancing Christ: Findings of a Ritual Ethnography of Intercultural Icons

The cultural renaissance in 20th-century India has fostered an aesthetic integration of contemplative mysticism with popular religious practices, influencing various artistic and theological movements. This paper examines Christian artist Joy Elamkunnapuzha’s use of Indian classical and mythical elements in his religious artworks, particularly in two North Indian churches. These intercultural icons, which incorporate symbols from Hindu traditions like mandalas and mudras, have been central to the worship practices of local Catholic communities for over three decades. Through ritual ethnography, the study reveals how these visual representations mediate ritual affectivity and communal imagination, impacting identity formation and spiritual engagement in a multi-religious context. Respondents—including worshippers, ministers, and religious students—attest to the transformative impact of these images, as they negotiate between Christian metaphors and Hindu aesthetic traditions. The research is grounded in practical theology, liturgical theology, and ritual studies, contributing to the works of Indian Christian cultural activists like Jyoti Sahi. By exploring the creative dynamics of visual approach, visual appeal, and visual affinity within worship spaces, the study elucidates the complex processes of meaning making through symbolic mediation in interreligious environments.

An Overview of Dimitris Xygalatas’ Ritual: How Seemingly Senseless Acts Make Life Worth Living (2022)

In his latest book Ritual: How Seemingly Senseless Acts Make Life Worth Living (2021), Dimitris Xygalatas brings together his various research programs with colleagues and the history of ritual theory to explain why humans engage in apparently pointless rituals. His core thesis is that rituals are not pointless activities whatsoever but rather cultural technologies that make our lives better, whether they assuage anxieties or render our communities more prosocial. Drawing from an interdisciplinary body of scholarship, Xygalatas offers a compelling argument as to why we humans are a ritual species. Furthermore, Xygalatas’ extensive laboratory and ethnographic research from over the last two decades provides strong empirical evidence for his thesis and other longstanding theories in ritual studies. The result is a book that delivers a captivating introduction to ritual studies, reasons for seriously considering the power of rituals, and how to research rituals with philosophical rigor and methodological precision.

ELEMENTS OF ANCIENT BELIEFS IN BASHKIR MATERNITY RITUALS

The article deals with some customs and rituals associated with childbirth. The relevance of the conducted research is conditioned by the growing interest in the role of ethno-cultural values in modern society and increasing attention to the previously underexplored phenomena of everyday life. The study of folk customs, rituals and representations related to childbirth will contribute to the understanding of the deep layers of Bashkir spiritual culture. Maternity rituals represent an important aspect of Bashkir cultural tradition. It encompasses prenatal, as well as birth and postnatal rituals, which to this day play an important role in the formation of family and social ties. The aim of the study is to identify elements of ancient beliefs in the Bashkirs' maternity rituals. An integrated approach, involving the analysis of ethnographic, historical, philosophical and folklore scientific works, was applied to achieve this goal. The research was based on a wide range of published and unpublished sources. The research revealed that the Bashkirs' maternity ritual is based on the ancient beliefs and ideas of the Bashkirs about man, nature and the world as a whole. It includes elements of animism, totemism, fetishism and magic. Important aspects of ritualism are connected with the protection of the child and the woman in labor, as well as with the first 40 days and the first year of the child's life. The elements of ancient beliefs revealed in the course of the research are manifested in the belief in the existence of spirits and souls, totem, in the ancestor worship, and are connected with beliefs in the protective properties of certain objects of the material world. The Bashkirs' maternity rituals include components of apotropaic, procreative and sympathetic magic. The study made it possible to study more deeply the mythology, ancient religious beliefs and traditional culture of the Bashkirs, to trace the evolution of the Bashkirs' maternity ritual and their transformation in modern conditions, to reveal the general regularities of the development of ritual culture, as well as the specific features characterizing particular nations. The preserved actions of magical rituals connected with childbirth refers to their stability and ability to adapt to new changing conditions of life.

Despair and Hope in Nonsense: A Study of the Subcultural Ritual of YouthTaking "Crazy Literature" as an Example

In the era of intelligent communication, the phenomenon of folk discourse production in online society is increasingly common. From the initial roaring style to the prevalent crazy literature today, various so-called internet literature emerges endlessly, becoming a media spectacle and also giving various forms of expression to the subculture of despair. Although crazy literature belongs to the category of the subcultural ritual of despair, those who are despairing are not despairing. Young people release emotions in despair through hysterical nonsense, and seek hope by establishing emotional connections with others in the same circle. This paper analyzes crazy literature from the perspective of interactive ritual chains, explores the formation mechanism of discourse carnival, and reveals the cultural symptoms behind crazy literature, providing a pathway for understanding crazy literature and the culture of despair.

Despair and Hope in Nonsense: A Study of the Subcultural Ritual of YouthTaking "Crazy Literature" as an Example

In the era of intelligent communication, the phenomenon of folk discourse production in online society is increasingly common. From the initial roaring style to the prevalent crazy literature today, various so-called internet literature emerges endlessly, becoming a media spectacle and also giving various forms of expression to the subculture of despair. Although crazy literature belongs to the category of the subcultural ritual of despair, those who are despairing are not despairing. Young people release emotions in despair through hysterical nonsense, and seek hope by establishing emotional connections with others in the same circle. This paper analyzes crazy literature from the perspective of interactive ritual chains, explores the formation mechanism of discourse carnival, and reveals the cultural symptoms behind crazy literature, providing a pathway for understanding crazy literature and the culture of despair.

How indigenous spiritual beliefs shape health-related consumption rituals: shipibo health rituals to tackle covid-19

PurposeIn marketing and consumer research, the study of Indigenous ideas and rituals remains limited. The authors present an Indigenous-informed study of consumption rituals co-produced with members of the Shipibo–Konibo Indigenous group of the Peruvian Amazon. Specifically, the authors worked with the Comando Matico, a group of Shipibos from Pucallpa, Peru. This study aims to investigate how Indigenous spiritual beliefs shape health-related consumption rituals by focusing on the experience of the Shipibos and their response to COVID-19.Design/methodology/approachDrawing upon the principles of Indigenous research, the authors co-produced this study with the Comando Matico. The authors collaboratively discussed the research project’s design, analysed and interpreted data and co-authored this study with members of the Comando Matico. This study uses discourse analyses. The corpus of discourse is speech and text produced by the Comando Matico in webinars and online interviews during the COVID-19 pandemic. The full and active participation of the Comando Matico informed the discourse analysis by ensuring Indigenous knowledge, and worldviews were infused throughout the process.FindingsThe authors foreground how Indigenous spiritual beliefs act as a force that imbues the knowledge and practice of health, wellbeing and illness, and this process shapes the performance of rituals. In Indigenous contexts, multiple spirits coexist with consumers, who adhere to specific rituals to respond to and relate to these spirits. Indigenous consumption rituals involve the participation of non-human beings (called rao, ibo, yoshin and chaikoni by the Shipibos) and this aspect challenges the traditional notion of rituals and ritual elements in marketing.Originality/valueThe authors demonstrate how Indigenous spiritual beliefs shape consumption rituals in the context of health and draw attention to how the acknowledgement of alternative ontologies and epistemologies can help address dominant hierarchies of knowledge in marketing theory.

Ritual: How Seemingly Senseless Acts Make Life Worth Living, by Dimitris Xygalatas

Dimitris Xygalatas is an anthropologist and cognitive scientist interested in religion, ritual, music, and sports fanship among other topics. Xygalatas’s book Ritual: How Seemingly Senseless Acts Make Life Worth Living (Profile Books, 2022; henceforth Ritual) results from years of rigorous ethnographic and experimental work. Ritual follows the perspective of the cognitive and evolutionary science of religion (hereafter referred to as CESR) and brings the reader up-to-date findings in the naturalistic study of religion and rituals. Xygalatas follows a neo-Darwinian and functionalistic approach to the study of religion, whose theoretical premises he describes in a way that is accessible even to the lay public throughout the book, but mainly in its second chapter.

Rituální studia a rané křesťanství

Rituální studia a rané křesťanství

Sense of safety or meaning in danger? Real-contact stick fighting as an imagistic ritual.

It is a common assumption that human behavior is guided by a desire to feel safe and avoid harm. However, this view is challenged by the popularity of high-risk leisure sport and other practices that involve subjecting oneself to a considerable danger with no apparent gain. By using real-contact stick fighting as an example, I suggest that the attractiveness of at least some such practices can be explained by cognitive dynamics that are typical of affectively intense rituals such as initiations. Affectively intense rituals are known to enhance personal meaning-making and foster identity fusion, that is, the overlapping of personal and social identities. The sense of meaning thus engendered effectively satisfies common identity motives and thus elicits positive affect. By introducing ritual studies perspectives into the edgework paradigm that is commonly used to conceptualize voluntary risk taking, I contribute to an increased understanding of the cognitive processes motivating participation in extreme leisure sport.

LOVE AND ITS SPECIFICITY IN THE RUSSIAN AND ARABIC LINGUOCULTURAL PICTURE OF THE WORLD

The article examines various aspects of love and its manifestations in the context of various cultural traditions. The author analyzes how cultural norms, values, and historical conditions influence the perception and expression of love in different societies. Particular attention is paid to the comparative analysis of the concepts of love in Western and Eastern cultures, as well as the study of specific forms and rituals associated with love in traditional and modern communities. The article demonstrates that love, despite its universal nature, acquires unique features and meanings depending on the cultural context in which it manifests itself.

Ritual Dynamics of Qur’an Burning

In this article I approach Qur’an burning from the perspective of ritual studies. By conducting a discourse analysis of a YouTube video of a Qur’an burning, I argue that it can be perceived as a ritualized performance that communicates a variety of meanings to a variety of audiences. On one hand, the burning demarcates between ‘us’ and a Muslim ‘them’, thus serving to construct an ingroup identity. On the other, Muslims are constructed as a barbaric threat against which a civilized man is justified to use violence. To consolidate intergroup boundaries most effectively, Qur’an burning must be conducted within a community or preferably broadcast to a wide audience. Even when broadcast online, however, the act needs to involve a physical book. Consequently, both online and offline aspects are important for the ritualization of Qur’an burning.

The Power of Musical Aesthetics

Abstract This article explores the role of music in eliciting emotional states among the Hamdouchiya Sufi order in Morocco. It highlights the aesthetic aspects of Sufi rituals as relational activities that impact sensory perceptions and mystical experiences. Music serves as a medium through which emotions are expressed, self-imagination takes form, and challenges to the study of rituals are presented. Aesthetics plays a pivotal role in Sufi practice and belief, involving the body as a vessel for spiritual transformation and interaction with music as reflections of the divine. The article also discusses the concept of aesthetics within a cultural context, emphasising its influence on socialisation and morality. Sufism provides an opportunity to contemplate the limits of the mind, self and emotions, thereby unveiling the ritualistic shaping of one's spiritual existence.

Archetype symbols and altered consciousness: a study of shamanic rituals in the context of Jungian psychology.

The alteration of consciousness during shamanic rituals is both a physical and mystical phenomenon. It involves psychological and spiritual experiences. Through ritual practices, shamans can connect with archetype within the collective unconscious, utilizing trance-inducing techniques for "hallucinatory exploration". This study surveyed 75 participants to investigate the impact of prototype symbols in Shamanistic rituals on participants' consciousness states focusing on Jungian psychology's concept of archetype. The results indicate that archetype symbols in shamanic rituals can significantly influence participants' conscious state, leading them to experience a conscious dissolution of the self. Furthermore, archetype symbols have different effects at the stages of consciousness change. In particular, during the "Visionary Restructuralization" stage, archetype symbols, such as patterns, masks, totems and music, brought participants' consciousness to a peak and caused significant changes to it. These findings suggest that the metaphoric function of archetype symbols plays a crucial role in rituals. Archetype symbols connect the individual to the collective unconscious through visual images and symbolic imagery. They prompt the participants to experience emotional resonances that transcend individual experiences and affect their state of consciousness.

Ritual and Power in Medicine: Questioning Honor Walks in Organ Donation.

Honor walks are ceremonies that purportedly honor organ donors as they make their final journey from the ICU to the OR. In this paper, we draw on Ronald Grimes' work in ritual studies to examine honor walks as ceremonial rituals that display medico-technological power in a symbolic social drama (Grimes, 1982). We argue that while honor walks claim to honor organ donors, ceremonies cannot primarily honor donors, but can only honor donation itself. Honor walks promote the quasi-religious idea of donation as a "good death," and mask the ambiguity and discomfort inherent in organ donation to promote greater acceptance by the medical community. While some goods may be achieved through honor walks, particularly for donor families, it is still important to examine the negative work done by this practice.

Filming Biblical Interpretations from the Ground: Anti-Empire Matthean Interpretations in Huwag Kang Papatay (2017) and the Philippine “Drug War”

Ditsi Carolino’s “Huwag Kang Papatay” (Thou Shall Not Kill, 2017) is an unconventional Jesus film. As a documentary, it presents the problems and the responses by members of the Roman Catholic Church in Metro Manila to the so-called “War on Drugs” (commonly known as Tokhang) of the Duterte government that resulted in thousands of extrajudicial killing (EJK) victims. From a biblical lens, this paper analyzes examples of grassroots recontextualizing interpretations of select Matthean passages like (1) Mt 6:9−13, the Lord’s Prayer, in the context of praying for an extrajudicial killing victim; (2) Mt 2:1−18, a street theater adaptation showing the massacre of the innocents, representing the beginning of the EJKs; and (3) Mt 27:27−50, a street theater adaptation of Jesus’ passion recontextualized in the plight of the victimized drug personalities. These episodes are examined using insights from biblical narrative criticism, performance criticism, empire studies, ritual studies and a liberationist approaches. The paper concludes that biblical interpretations from the ground in this documentary film demonstrate Matthew’s anti-empire message by recontextualizing Jesus’s story in the context of extrajudicial killings to advocate for political dialogue and action-response against human rights violations and development issues caused by the EJKs.

La muerte de la abadesa: comunidad y ritualización en el monasterio de Sant Pere de les Puel·les

ABSTRACT The study of funerary ritual is an area that has received attention in recent decades from various disciplines and perspectives. We address this topic from the perspective of the abbesses. This focus allows us to trace unique aspects of their funerals and especially their connection to and integration within their communities: in relation to community members —nuns, beneficiary chaplains, external authorities, etc.—, as well as the community experiences —circuits and paths in a cloistered space, objects, times and rhythms, soundscape, etc. The subject of our study is the Benedictine monastery of Sant Pere de les Puel·les in Barcelona, a female community founded by the counts of Barcelona in the first half of the tenth century which still survives, preserving an important living historical archive.

Семантика повитухи в родильных обрядах традиционной культуры бурят

The study of maternity rituals in the traditional culture of the Buryats makes it possible to identify preserved and actively functioning archaic traces of the mother cult. Maternity rituals are associated with a developed complex of initiation rituals, when a large-scale change of spatial, temporal and cultural paradigms occurs for a newborn. This process takes place under the guidance of a midwife, who is the figurative embodiment of the cult of the Mother ancestor. According to mythological and ritual views, from the first moments of the birth of a child, thanks to the midwife, the sphere of the iconic is actualized when the newborn undergoes the processes of ritual transformation necessary for his socialization and integration into society. The analysis of the structure of maternity rituals revealed the semantic connection of the midwife with the archaic image of the Mother ancestor. This can be seen, firstly, in the special requirements – “to be a prosperous woman”. These include age, health, but most importantly, “offspring without loss”. Secondly, the concept of a midwife as a “utoodai” (grandmother) made it possible to identify the motive of the ancestry of the Mother Earth in the image of a “gray-haired old woman”, which is simultaneously identified with the image of a hoofed animal “possessing an udder”. Such a woman, with qualities and linguistic definitions corresponding to the characteristics of the maternal cult (“Mother Earth”, “Mother Beast”), conducted, firstly, the ceremony of transferring a newborn from another world to this one, fixing it as a living person, and secondly, constructing sexual identification, launched a male coding program or female stereotypes of behavior, introducing a newborn into the members of the generic society and the corresponding gender and age group. The use of modern research methods allowed us to substantiate the ancient traces of the mother cult preserved in the traditional Buryat society, associated with the vital activity of society, which was a key basis in the formation of such vital elements as external structures, linguistic definition, and internal sacred content.

조선시대사 연구로서 조선후기 국가의례 연구의 기여와 과제

조선시대사 연구로서 조선후기 국가의례 연구의 기여와 과제

Ritual narratives of infrastructure ceremonies: Time, demands, and relations in modern Chinese history

In recent years, attention has been drawn to infrastructure groundbreaking ceremonies and their ritual and political effects. However, infrastructure ceremonies in China, the world’s largest builder and supplier of infrastructure and the ‘nation of rites’, are somehow overlooked. Using insights from infrastructure and ritual studies, and leveraging narratives from Chinese official media, this study aims to explore how infrastructure rituals shape the sociopolitical significance of infrastructure as technical artefact. Through the Chinese case, we find that three elements of infrastructure ritual narratives (time, demands, and relations) are focused, restructured, and amplified. These elements are then interwoven into broader sociopolitical narratives spanning various eras of modern Chinese history. Our aim is to provide a perspective for a deeper understanding of the sociopolitical production of infrastructure meanings through the case of Chinese ceremonies.